Light beam pointer devices such as laser pointers are used as a tool for a number of purposes such as highlighting aspects of slide presentations and directing attention to aspects of real world objects for instructional purposes. Handheld laser pointers have become increasingly popular in recent years for use by instructors to point out detail on projected slides and the like, see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,148 to Shu, et al.
Image processing and data transmission technology enable remote display of images marked by laser pointers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,135 to Schlossberg describes a remote pointing system where a user directs a laser pointer at a locally projected image. The local image, including the laser point, is then transmitted to, and displayed at a remote location. However, in Schlossberg, the user must manually direct the laser at the local image to display the laser point at the corresponding location in the remote image.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,189 describes an apparatus for directing a laser pointer located remotely by a user at a local location. There, the user views an image of the remote location in order to direct the remotely located laser pointer.
Image processing systems for detecting and recognizing objects in scenes are also well known. Typically, a camera acquires an image of the object, and a vision system connected to the video camera detects and recognizes the object in the image, see, e.g., Dulaney et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,584.
It is desired to provide a system that can automatically direct a laser pointer at an object.